Page 7 - IAV Digital Magazine #510

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Family Builds Backyard Tribute To Disneyland Roller Coaster
By Ben Hooper
Nov. 9 (UPI) -- A California family who missed going to Disneyland amid the COVID- 19 pandemic passed the time during lockdown by building a smaller version of the Matterhorn roller coaster in their back yard.
Brothers Sean and Michael LaRochelle said they came up with the idea for the Matterhorn Alpine Escape in March and pitched their par- ents, Jacques and Diana LaRochelle, the idea of building the Disney- inspired coaster in the back yard
of the family's Carneros back- yard.
Sean and Michael enlisted the help of their parents, as well as sib- lings Mark and Nicole, to build the roller coaster. They started work in March and fin- ished the project in July.
"Growing up, Disneyland was something I loved," Sean LaRochelle, an architecture grad- uate student, told the Napa Valley Register. "I've always wanted to create a roller coaster."
The end result was a roller coaster about 20
feet tall with a track measuring about 400 feet long. The family said the ride takes about 50 seconds.
Sean LaRochelle said he was inspired by a fam- ily who built a walk-through ver- sion of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean ride in
their home.
"They talk about all the negatives of COVID, but one of the bene- fits of COVID is you have all this time and you realize you know, 'what can I be doing with all this time?'" he told KGO-TV.
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